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 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Erasure
If you read my review for Erasure’s previous album (the painfully morose ‘Nightbird’), you would (rightly) surmise that I don’t think much of this band… which is why I figured I’d do us both a favor and not even listen to “Union Street.” Nevertheless, my masochistic tendencies won out and I played the disk, expecting to hate every last second. So, then, why am I still listening to it? I’ll tell you why. This sounds nothing at all like the Erasure that I disdain so much. In fact, other than the occasionally warbly dramatics of singer Andy Bell, I can barely recognize them. Through some
transformative miracle, Erasure turned into a heartfelt, earthy, acoustic duo.
Erasure fans might be the very people who are off-put by this collection, because it is such a radical departure from their catalog of work. The synthesizers are used sparingly and tastefully. There isn’t a single disco-fied, canned drum track on the entire disk. The plasticized instrumentation that previously defined Erasure is nowhere to be found. Instead, there is some truly soulful guitar playing. A real string section is used from time to time. A few tracks feature a dobro! Elsewhere, there’s even a steel guitar!! After more than two decades of rehashed, tiresome club mixes, Vince Clark and Andy Gill suddenly resemble Ryan Adams more than the Pet Shop Boys. Has the earth spun off of its axis?
I admit that I don’t recognize a single track here, but fans of the band should recognize almost all of them, by title if not by arrangement. Each song has been previously released (in a ‘synthesized’ version) on one of their previous albums. Apparently, Clarke and Bell felt that these songs might have been overlooked in that context. Considering my own aversions, I certainly understand why they might think this. I may be willing to take a risk or two, but I’m not so much of a masochist as to go back and compare versions. I am simply happy to report that “Union Street” features a number of truly good tracks, and most surprisingly, is quite genuine.
Grade: 
 
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